A plasma beam dump uses the collective oscillations of plasma electrons to absorb the kinetic energy of a particle beam. In this paper, a modified passive plasma beam dump scheme is proposed using either a gradient or stepped plasma profile to maintain a higher decelerating gradient compared with a uniform plasma. The improvement is a result of the plasma wavelength change preventing the re-acceleration of low energy particles. Particle-in-cell simulation results show that both stepped and gradient plasma profiles can achieve improved energy loss compared with a uniform plasma for an electron bunch of parameters routinely achieved in laser wakefield acceleration.